missing someone

Have you ever had anyone say via text, voicemail, or Messenger, “I miss you”? I have. It rattled me. I didn’t get it at first because it had only been 45 minutes since I last saw her. Yeah, I was thinking as a man does, with his mind and not his heart. When I did grasp the deep emotional value of those words, I realized she was really saying, “I love you.”

That happened many years ago, and the relationship ran its course, but the words and the feeling never faded from my mind. Today, I look for opportunities to say those words to April. When I do speak or text them, I know a warm glow is sparked within her heart, and I’m sure a smile grows upon her face. I only say them when I mean them, too.

But what about when it comes to our relationship with God? Do we miss Him? Do we miss spending time in His word? If you are honest, probably not as much as we should. Is that because we can’t see God? Or maybe it’s because we don’t feel close to Him to begin with? I get the impression that some people’s relationship with God is merely utilitarian. Meaning, it’s about what God can do for them.

This makes me sad because God is more than that! He is a loving, caring being who is always there and loves us perfectly. Perhaps occasionally, we need to tell God, “I miss you.” When we do, I know it will put a smile on his face. And it will strengthen a heartfelt connection between you two.

Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you.Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Jer. 29:12-14a (AMPC)

Through the night my soul longs for you.
Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you. Isa. 26:9 (MSG)

“I miss you!” texted the woman I was seeing several years ago. I was surprised. No one had ever said that to me before. I didn’t understand. “I replied to her, “You just saw me, like, less than two hours ago.”

Fast forward to last Saturday. April was attending her women’s Bible study. Out of the blue, she texted me, “I miss you.” Now I gotta tell ya, it does feel good to be told that. To know that someone in this world misses not being with you in your presence. When I asked her why she said that she responded by saying, “We were discussing “love.”

So, for a few days, I pondered the phrase. I realized and then felt guilty, that we need to love God so much and be in his presence that we say. “I miss you” to God. Being in the presence of God is an incredible feeling! You don’t want to leave because you feel his love surround you.

Being in the throne room of heaven is a privilege we only have because of Jesus dying on the cross. You see, the moment he exhaled his last breath, the veil in the temple of God was ripped from top to bottom. We were no longer separated from God. But now we can enter with boldness and confidence that we are welcomed.

When Jesus died on the cross, God tore the veil in the Jerusalem temple from top to bottom. No one but God could have done such a thing because that veil was 60 feet tall and four inches thick. The direction of the tear meant God destroyed the barrier between himself and humanity, an act only God had the authority to do. (Source: LearnReligions.com)

⁵⁰But Jesus, again crying out loudly, breathed his last.
⁵¹At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. Mat. 27:50-51 (MSG)

So, with that, “I miss you, God.”